2-4 Mar 2018 Meditation retreat Mindfulness and Well-being

In this digital age, everything changes very fast. To operate one's life without problems, one needs to be very mindful. In this weekend retreat, we will learn to develop stronger mindfulness and learn to apply different techniques of Buddhist meditation to solve different kinds of obstacles, and to remain active and peaceful.

Summary of March 2018 retreat

Mindfulness and Well-being

Mindfulness is one of the most beautiful things to practice. Mindfulness is the mother of all virtues. It is worthy to spend time to exercise mindfulness. We will never regret it.

The more we practise mindfulness, the stronger mindfulness will be.

Body and mind work together. We try to look after the body as best as we can, so the healthy body will not distract the mind.

The very basic practise of mindfulness is the mindfulness on body posture- be aware what the body is doing: sitting, walking, standing, eating, drinking etc.

After mindfulness becomes stronger, then we can upgrade mindfulness by watching the flow of breath.

However, the mind is very tricky like a stubborn monkey. We may need various approaches to tame this monkey consciousness. And Buddhist teachings are all about proper techniques to tame the monkey mind.

There are only two occasions when the monkey stops jumping around. First, the monkey is sleeping. Second, it is eating a banana.

There are at least 40 techniques of mindfulness meditation mentioned in the Buddhist text book – Visuthimagga ( Path of Purification). Or we can say there are 40 types of banana.

But the breathing technique is the yummiest and healthiest banana recommended by the Buddha.

The only problem is that the monkey mind, in the beginning, finds the breathing technique so colourless and boring.

Remember how the coconut farmers catch the wild monkeys. Learn to use the combination of banana and coconut fruit to catch the monkey.

When the breath becomes clearer and smoother, we can stop the combination techniques and totally concentrate the mind on the breath.

Maintain the platform of mindful breathing, relax and keep calm.Then use this calm mind to practise Vipassana meditation.

The object to be observed can be the breath, feeling, memory, thoughts or consciousness.

But that object must be happening in the present moment, neither from the past nor the future. Real thing in the real time. Therefore our realization of impermanence and not self towards the body and mind can be obviously clear.

Only this direct experience of realization can help to remove attachment to the body & mind. And the inner peace will prevail.

Happiness is not the final aim in life, but the Inner Peace is.

The higher we proceed in the 16 steps of Anapanasati, the more peaceful we will be.

The letting go of attachment can happen only when the mind reaches the total Inner Peace.

Dear Friends,

I hope everyone has had a safe, peaceful and mindful journey back home.